Israel's Expansionisme

Eind vorige maand schreef Sarah Leah Whitson van de mensenrechtenorganisatie Human Rights Watch in een brief aan president Bush: 'Dear President Bush, I am writing to you with respect to multiple Israeli announcements of its plans to continue expanding settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). This directly contravenes international law and Israeli commitments under the Road Map. You recently reiterated Israel’s obligations to stop expanding settlements when you said, on October 20, 2005, following your meeting with Palestinian President Abbas: “Israel should not undertake any activity that contravenes its road map obligations, or prejudices the final status negotiations with regard to Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem. This means that Israel must remove unauthorized outposts and stop settlement expansion.” Israel has acted contrary to these obligations, escalating the building of settlements in 2005. According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, in the first half of 2005, there was a 28% increase in settlement housing starts compared to the same period in 2004. Israel now proposes to further expand West Bank settlements in the coming year. We urge you to use U.S. diplomatic and financial influence to stop this trend in 2006.' http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/12/27/isrlpa12346.htm Vorige week donderdag werd Sarah Leah Whitson geinterviewd in het programma van Democracy Now. De journaliste Amy Goodman vroeg haar ondermeer het volgende: 'What would it mean for Israel to lose this money? SARAH LEAH WHITSON: I think more than the money, it would mean a huge understanding that the United States is not willing to support Israel’s unlawful activities, that the United States is actually willing to stand behind the public commitments, statements it’s made that it does not want Israel to expand settlements, that it continues to believe that these are wrong acts, that they undermine the political process and, obviously, they're unlawful, as well.' Zie: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/06/1451234 Voor een overzicht van het Israelische expansionisme van het afgelopen decennium, zie: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/israel/map/